What does it mean to be "woke"? It's become a catchall term to smear or dismiss anything that has any vague association with progressive politics. As a result, anytime you venture into an argument about “wokeness,” it becomes hopelessly entangled in a broader cultural battle. Tod ...Show more
Is America collapsing like Ancient Rome?
What can ancient Rome teach us about American democracy?The Roman Republic fell for a lot of reasons: The state became too big and chaotic; the influence of money and private interests corrupted public institutions; and social and economic inequalities became so large that citize ...Show more
The world according to Werner Herzog
Sean Illing speaks with one of his heroes: Werner Herzog.Herzog is a filmmaker, poet, and author of the memoir Every Man for Himself and God Against All. The two discuss "ecstatic truth," a term invented by Herzog to capture what he's really after in his work, why he's interested ...Show more
Ta-Nehisi Coates on complexity, clarity, and truth.
How important is complexity? At The Gray Area, we value understanding the details. We revel in complexity. But does our desire to understand that complexity sometimes over-complicate an issue?Journalist and bestselling author Ta-Nehisi Coates thinks so.This week on The Gray Area, ...Show more
Your mind needs chaos
In part three of our series on creativity, guest host Oshan Jarow speaks with philosopher of neuroscience Mark Miller about how our minds actually work. They discuss the brain as a predictive engine that builds our conscious experience for us. We’re not seeing what we see. We’re ...Show more